Aiming for zero

flipper_72

Happy New Year 🥂🎉
First overpayment of the year sent. £185 which is made up of gymnastics/trampolining/swimming/gym fees that we don’t need to pay as we’re in tier 4 ☹️

I paid off £100 yesterday from the bills account and on Monday the normal payment and the SO for £150 will both go out. 

I doubt there will be much more paid this month, kids not going back until 18th means the shopping bill will increase, although I can hopefully offset that by not buying any alcohol. DH always does dry January and I am not going to drink at home. We are in a support bubble with my dad so I may have the odd drink at his.

twinklie

I'm tier 4 now too. Boo and sob. Doesn't actually affect us that much because I'm in the North West and we've been under tough restrictions virtually since this whole thing got started to we never restarted swimming etc for our boys because they are both autistic and we were worried what the constant stop/start might do to unsettle them. 
School remains open from Monday (both primary age) so literally no change. 

flipper_72

I have just read your diary Twinklie, I wish we had snow it would have improved the last few days of the holidays!!
DD is probably autistic, after a few mental health issues this year one of the counsellors asked if she had been diagnosed, she hadn’t but the realisation made lots of things about her suddenly make sense! It is 2 years to get a formal diagnosis so we won’t know for sure for quite a while. School now know and are going to class her as diagnosed though, although I don’t think it will make much difference there. 

Anyway 2 more firsts for 2021:
First run done, we are doing a challenge in a couple of weeks so needed to work out 1 mile loop or loops from the house. We have 3 sorted now which is fantastic.

First sale made, I no longer use any of my Le Creuset pans so have decided to sell, the wok was collected today and has put £60 into my newly created “treats” envelope. I was originally going to put it straight into the mortgage but decided it would be nice to be able to do something spur of the moment and unbudgetted once we leave tier 4.

savingholmes

Definitely worth getting a diagnosis. I got DD diagnosed at 16 - and it's made a lot of difference. Wish we'd understood about ASD earlier.

flipper_72

Thanks savingholmes we do intend to get the diagnosis , we had looked at going private but DD also has physical disabilities so it will not make any difference to her GCSEs so we are concentrating on getting the school to support them as these are diagnosed (these have only manifested in the past 18 months so the school aren’t yet fully supportive). It has been a tough 18 months for her, she has gone from being a National level swimmer and regional team gymnast to being unable to do either and can’t even write a sentence (which the selectively school just don’t ‘get’)

flipper_72

I think I have become a little obsessed with the finances/ overpaying at the moment, I am already planning what we will not need to pay next month if we are still in lockdown and therefore can be thrown at the mortgage 🙈 It has made me realise I should be able to make a pretty hefty overpayment next month (for us relative to income) which is great.

Some good news for DD this week, her hip problems don’t seem to be as bad as her other joints and the orthopaedic consultant feels they can be managed with lots of physio and specific exercises. Still waiting for the appointment to fully diagnose her though (should have been September but due to Covid they just say she is on the list and they will get to her eventually).

flipper_72

Well DD physio appointment was an absolute joke, it was over Wattsapp and she knew more about the exercises she should and shouldn’t be doing than the physio!! We are going to request a different physio next time ( this was the first appointment with this one, previous one was brilliant).

On the mortgage front, payday was yesterday and I am going to be able to make a big overpayment (for us) this month. Yay.
Things not happening 
Trampolining and gymnastics £72
Swimming £151
Rugby £15
Gym £82
Competition entries £65
So just on sports and exercise savings I will be making a payment of £385, we are still making nominal payments for swimming so the head coach doesn’t have to be furloughed again and can lead some online bits.

Council tax £239

 I sort our budget monthly in pots so there are a couple of areas where I have enough buffer to be able to pay them towards the mortgage.
Petrol £100
School dinners £20
So total extra overpayment £744
I am going to reassess my goal for this year as lockdown is changing things massively. 

flipper_72

Overpayment made and the balance is down to £112,103.51, monthly payment and scheduled overpayment will go out Monday and Tuesday so looking forward to seeing what it is then.

 I have decided to aim for £3500 overpayment for 2021 based on lockdown ending sometime in March, if it extends further I will reassess then.

powerspowers

That’s a brill overpayment for January, at least there is one benefit to not being able to do things!

caeler

Great OP @flipper_72 all my lockdown savings are also being thrown at the mortgage.